Dear Ears,
Rhyme makes many poets nervous: for one thing, it’s obvious when it goes awry. But it can be glorious, offering a sonic connection between ideas that can be soothing or startling.
As Amanda Gunn explains to me in Episode 5 of Multi-Verse, rhyme helped her find comfort in writing about a painful subject: her poem “What You Meant” discusses the death of Amanda’s partner and the mystery of her last words.
Through rhyme, meter, and “burnt till bittersweet” detail, “What You Meant” takes us on a journey of forensic imagination, as Amanda draws on her own memories to conjure the sensual details of her partner’s life.
I knew you, too: the taste of your taste.
The pleasures your ample, precious body
could contain.
I watched you eat your onions cut with salt, the fat
of bacon crisping in your pan
or raw into the mouth, cold and plain.
Witnessing a loved one’s pleasure and suffering, Amanda notes, is one way of showing care.
Listen with tender attention,
Evangeline
You can find the episode and subscribe to the episode by clicking on one of the buttons below, or by searching “Multi-Verse” in your podcast app.
“What You Meant” is a special Multi-Verse preview: you’ll be able to find it in Amanda Gunn’s debut book, What I Didn’t Do with This Body, forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in Spring 2023.
Multi-Verse is a poetry podcast hosted and produced by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. To hear more poets share and discuss the poems they don’t usually read aloud, subscribe to Multi-Verse at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, SoundCloud, your favorite podcast app, or visit multiversepoetry.org.
New to this newsletter? Click here to receive monthly Multi-Verse updates.
Episode 5: Amanda Gunn’s Forensic Imagination